Thank you for a wonderful 2024!
At our Community Reading last week I asked everyone present to take a moment and set an intention for the new year. Together we each took a deep breath, stilled, and made a promise to ourselves about our writing.
The beauty of intention setting is that honors both the past and the future. In 2024 we welcomed hundreds of writers into our classrooms, online and on campus. We hosted exciting guest authors, celebrated stories written and published, tried writing in new forms and cheered one another on. For some people, this was their first writing class. For others, the Writing Institute has become their home.
I am filled with gratitude when I think about each of the writers who showed up with our community in 2024. Whether your intention for the new year is to write a single page or finish a full manuscript, to read more poetry or try a new genre, we look forward to being part of your writing journey once more.Here's to more writing and storytelling in 2025!
January 2024
We started the year with Facing the Blank Page, a free generative class with writer and artist Samantha Steiner (MFA ‘20). More than seventy writers joined us on Zoom to use artwork as inspiration and generate new story ideas. What a great way to kick off the new year! Looking to jumpstart your writing practice in 2025? Don’t miss our free generative session with Cindy Beer Fouhy on January 8th!
February 2024
February brought us to Kansas City, MO for the annual AWP conference. We partnered with local cat cafe Whiskers to host Writers & Cats, a festive reading with authors like Emma Eisenberg and our own Ava Robinson. After the reading everyone got to spend some time with the kitties at the cat cafe next door. More than sixty people crowded into Whiskers for this unique event, a dream come true. Stay tuned for our next pop up event for AWP 2025 in Los Angeles.
March 2024
We love any chance to collaborate with our friends in the MFA Writing program, and so it was a joy to bring Writing Institute instructor and author Margo Steines to campus in March! Margo gave a craft talk on hybrid memoir, the subject of her popular course, and read from her memoir Brutalities. Writing Institute students are welcome to attend guest author readings on campus throughout the year - we’ll share the Spring 2025 schedule in the new year. All are welcome.
April 2024
Is there anything better than Sarah Lawrence’s campus in the spring? We hosted more than a dozen on campus classes in 2024, including Courtney’s Memoir Toolbox course. Don’t miss the chance to study on campus this season with instructors like Amelia Possanza, Janine Annett, Elaine Sexton and more.
May 2024
Since 2007, we’ve partnered with Yonkers Public Schools to bring young writers on campus for creative writing workshops. We capped off another season of working with these talented middle and high school writers in May. Led by MFA Writing students as teaching artists, these young writers wrote poems, made zines and explored new genres together in a supportive environment. We can’t wait to meet next year’s cohort of young writers!
June 2024
Summertime means summer events! In June, we partnered with Yonkers Public Library for Radical Joy, a pride reading with Lambda Award winning memoirists Edgar Gomez and Amelia Possanza. Later we welcome poets and alumni Thea Goodman and Wren Hanks to campus for an intimate reading on the Slonim patio on campus. Thanks to local indie bookstore Transom Bookshop for being our bookseller for both of these events!
July 2024
The best way to learn how to write is to read, and what’s more fun than reading with Barbara Josselsohn? In July, we introduced a new course with Barbara: Reading Like a Writer. Eight writers joined Barbara on campus for a deep dive into the hit novel Lessons in Chemistry, digging into its structure, its characters, and so much more. The class even inspired this great craft essay by Barara, published on Writer’s Digest.
August 2024
Celebrating twenty five years this summer, Writers Week took place in August with 81 young writers, 18 graduate students and alumni teaching artists, 3 staff members, 2 guest authors and so much fun! Our beloved pre-college summer program provides young writers a space to generate new writing and experiment with theatre arts. This was paired with our virtual program in July which created the same unique experience for dozens of young teens from near and far. Dates for Writers Week 2025 are coming soon.
September 2024
With the new school year, we unveiled a new look - did you notice?
We also tabled at the Brooklyn Book Festival alongside Sarah Lawrence’s MFA program. Even though it was drizzly and grey, it was a wonderful opportunity to connect with like minded book lovers. We were so glad to get to chat with all of you who stopped by our table for a hello, former students and future ones alike.
October 2024
In October, we hosted our first annual Craft Weekend with our friends at the MFA Program! 87 of you attended, willing to engage in a wide variety of workshops. Participants learned about the craft of character, discussed the use of fear and horror in fiction, practiced writing ekphrastic poetry, and much more. We’re grateful to our keynote speakers, Tyler Mills and Amelia Possanza, who gave us glimpses into their own writing practices and shared valuable advice. Thank you to all our instructors and our partners at the MFA Writing Program for collaborating with us to host such a word-filled weekend. We can’t wait for the next one! PS - you can catch both Tyler and Amelia in the classroom this Spring with new classes!
November 2024
When it comes to revision, it helps to get crafty! In November, Elaine Sexton (MFA ‘99) hosted her popular Poetry Revision Master Class on campus and put this into practice. Elaine has taught for the Writing Institute for more than twenty years and her innovative workshops are always a treat
Elaine is teaching with us again next year - register for her class here!
December 2024
To close out the year, we gathered for our annual Community Reading & Winter Celebration! Barbara Josselsohn read from her latest novel, The Forgotten Italian Restaurant, alongside a handful of students from our fall classes. We heard novel excerpts and short essays, memoirs in progress and even some poetry. As always, it’s such a treat to get to share in the joy of writing with you and to celebrate the year together. Here’s to more writing and storytelling in 2025!